Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 153
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative receipt from Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq), probably written around 2500–2400 BCE. It records two allotments of five gur of dark-emmer flour — one earmarked for an official titled Gal5-la2-gal, one for the Great Herald — both delivered to what appears to be an institutional household. The tablet is dated by festival month and names Ur-Ninmug as the scribe responsible for writing it, a rare instance in which an individual Early Dynastic bureaucrat can be identified by name from Adab's administrative archive.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Five large measures of dark-emmer flour were allocated to the official Gal5-la2-gal, and another five to the Great Herald. Both shipments were delivered to the house of the son — likely a named institution or junior official's household. The scribe Ur-Ninmug handled the record; An-na-šum either authorized or physically handed over the goods. The transaction was registered in the festival month of the Sacred Mound. The final lines, partially damaged, confirm the commodity as dark emmer wheat and identify the relevant storehouse as belonging to the nu-banda3 officer — though the last sign is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 gur of dark-emmer flour — Gal5-la2-gal. 5 gur of dark-emmer flour — Nimgir-gal, the Great Herald. To the house of the son, it was brought. Ur-Ninmug, the scribe — An-na-šum gave [it]. Month: Du6-ku3 (the Sacred Mound). Dark emmer wheat[...] House of the nu-[banda3].
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
5(asz@c) zi3 ziz2 gig gur gal5-la2-gal 5(asz@c) zi3 ziz2 gig gur nimgir-gal e2#-dumu-sze3 an-de6 ur-nin-mug dub-sar-ra an-na-szum2 iti du6-ku3 ziz2 gig# e2 nu#-[banda3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 153. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252781) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.